Shadows and Oppression
by Darkknight343
Summary: Set in 2030, 5 years before the events of X-COM 2 and 15 years after X-COM: Enemy Unkown. Dan is a resident in one of ADVENTs redesigned cities, London. He will discover the dangerous truth of the ADVENT administration and the aliens true agenda, and will be forced to take up arms to defend himself and humanity.
1. Prologue

Residential District 4, London, 2030, 25 of February.

Rain beat down onto the cold metal of the cafe's roof. Dan could hear it from inside as he sipped a warm cup of coffee and read off his data tablet. He was 26, dark black hair and brown eyes, Caucasian. He wore a grey hoody and black trousers and white trainers. He was reading a news story, which stated 3 terrorists had been killed in Moscow. There was a link to a video, which he opened after plugging in ear phones. Dan turned the tablet to a landscape position and turned up the volume. The video played.

It was clearly shot from a news camera, and the reporter was stood to the left of the shot. She had a microphone in one hand, gesturing at the large building 20 metres behind her, down a street of similar buildings.

"This is the building the terrorists have fortified. As you can see, there have been attempts to storm it already." The camera zoomed in, looking at the entrance where several ADVENT troops were sprawled, dead on the steps. Suddenly there was a burst of movement, and the camera zoomed back out and showed 6 or 7 ADVENT troops sprinting down the road, straight at the door. Gunfire erupted from the ground floor, filling the street with bullets. 2 of the soldiers went down 5 metres from the building, clutching their wounds and groaning. The remaining soldiers returned fire, and one of the terrorists tumbled out of a first story window as the magnetic guns blew the wall apart. A single shot rang out, and another trooper died from a sniper, getting a shot directly to his head. His helmet flew off, but his head was pixelated out. The troops returned fire, killing the sniper quickly. The third was dispatched when a sectoid shot him from an adjacent rooftop, blowing a hole through the woman's chest.

"As you can see, our brave troops sacrificing their lives to save innocent civilians from these... brutal monsters." The video ended, with the reporter looking on as civilians exited the building.

Dan unplugged his headphones, frowning slightly. Weird they'd blocked the soldiers head, when they'd shown all the other bodies. He drank the last of the coffee and stood up. The rain had stopped. A series of loud bangs erupted from outside, followed by shouts and booted feet. Dan looked out the window, trying to see anything through the failing light. He could see the plaza outside, but it was poorly lit and slightly foggy. He looked over at the cafe owner, who looked as concerned as he was. An ADVENT trooper stumbled through the door, shouting something in an unknown language, clutching his rifle in one hand. Three bullets pierced him, spraying yellow blood all over the cafe and causing the trooper to slump down and collapse. A woman burst in, pointing her assault rifle across the room, where there was only Dan and the owner.

"Freeze! Don't move or I'll shoot!" She demanded, and Dan immediately put his hands up. The owner had a different idea, and tried to run from the counter to the back. Another man burst in, and shot him in the back with his handgun, spraying blood all over the empty kitchen door.

Sirens could be heard in the distance, causing the man and woman to curse. She wore armour of some description, some of it looked very similar to ADVENT armour, as did the male. They both wore long hoods and bandanas over their faces. He held a sniper rifle, the deadly pistol holstered on his leg. She had her assault rifle which was aimed at Dan, along with what looked like a sword strapped to her back.

"We haven't got much time. What do we do with him?" The man asked, looking through the windows.

"We should-" she was cut short as a trooper burst in through the kitchen door entrance, and another through the window Dan was next to, with a third coming straight through the door. The woman instinctively sliced at the soldier at the front door, cutting his wrists off and rendering him immobile. The man shot the kitchen door trooper with his rifle, the shot glancing off its helmet which bounced off the door. The now exposed alien beat the male with his rifle, knocking him down, as the woman was subdued by the other. Dan watched, as the troopers readied to shoot the two terrorists. He could now see the troopers head, it was more alien than human... he was disgusted. The woman's rifle was at his feet, knocked there by the troopers clumsy attempt at an attack. They had their backs to him, and the man and woman were staring at the ground. He picked the rifle up and aimed for the exposed one, blowing its skull half open and showering the man with blood. The second trooper turned around, screaming in alien at him, but not quickly enough, receiving a burst in the chest, followed by a burst into the head.


	2. Chapter 1 - Boston

Chapter 1

Somewhere near Boston, East coast of America, 14th of April, 2031.

Dan walked through the streets, discreetly working his way around ADVENT scanning towers and checkpoints. It was dusk, and the amount of people on the streets was slowly decreasing. It would soon be hard to remain unnoticed in the suburb. It wasn't as built up as the main city, with much smaller houses and much more open streets. This meant less security and fewer civilians in general. He could seen Leonardo on the rooftop to his left, nimbly keeping up with him, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, always keeping within sight. Sarah would be near too, on ground level and sneaking along at the same pace. Static noise barked into his ear for a second and Dan winced. "Devil 1, time on target?" The voice asked, an American with a deep voice.

"30 seconds Devil Actual, within visual range now." Approximately 15 metres down the street there was a grey metal building, with 2 ADVENT troopers and an officer outside. They stood next to a scanning tower situated by the door of the armoury.

"Devil 3 in position." He flicked his eyes up and saw Leonardo aiming at the enemy from the adjacent rooftop.

"Devil 2, ready." Sarah said, and as Dan neared she was just visible on the closest side of the building, out of the soldiers view. There were now few civilians on the street, and of those that remained, none seemed to notice the ambush.

"Devil 1 in position." Dan said, the throat mike picking it up and relating it to the squad.

"All Devils, execute."

Leonardo shot at the officer, blowing his lower jaw off and killing him instantly as the bullet severed the spine. The other two snapped their heads up almost instantly and split up, ducking into crouch positions behind low level concrete walls next to them. Sarah ran into the building and shot out the window into one soldiers back, the force of her shotgun throwing him over the wall and sprawling into the street. Dan reacted quickly as the remaining troop fired at Sarah. He grabbed a drone out of his backpack as he ran and threw it up into the air. It preceded to kill the remaining soldier with an electric shock. Civilians sprinted away, screaming, alarms blaring in the distance. Dan swiftly walked into the building, the drone following him. The troopers weapons exploded on the ground.

"Ambush successful, acquiring items." Sarah said. She turned and joined Dan as he walked in. It was a two room prefab building, with no door in between rooms. The inside was a dark grey colour, with an eerie glow of red as klaxons sounded. They cleared the second room. On the back wall was a weapon rack, with a dozen ADVENT magnetic rifles. Dan and Sarah smiled and approached the weapons, discarding their own inferior conventional weapons. They quickly snapped up a rifle each, then found a sniper rifle for Leonardo.

"Devil Actual, this is devil 1. This is a hell of a haul. Exactly what we were expecting."

"Copy that Devil 1. Grab all you can then secure evac, Devil Actual out."

Dan loaded several of the rifles into his backpack, along with ammunition and magazines. He fit 3 rifles in, and even more ammunition. Sarah did the same, fitting a similar number in. They planted charges on the remaining weapons, piling up some grenades they'd found for added impact and left the building. Leonardo met them outside, quickly taking possession of his new-found toy.

"Nice..." he said in an Italian accent.

"You're welcome." Sarah responded in a French accent.

"We'd better be going guys." Dan pointed out, gesturing for then to leave. They jogged down the road from which they'd come, and quickly ducked into an alleyway. They were 30 metres away from the armoury and saw the ADVENT reaction force sprinting down the road. There was an officer, 3 soldiers and a sectoid. As soon as they entered the building, it exploded spectacularly. Sarah put the detonator in her bag, and the three fighters turned and ran.

They were on the outskirts, which meant the wilderness wasn't too far away. They headed towards their evac vehicle. It was parked a mile away, just outside the district, hidden in an old house garage. It was pitch black now, and they relied on torches to see. Alarms still blared in the distance, and drop ships continuously flew overhead, threatening to expose them with each pass. Every time this happened, the trio had to dive in cover and switch off their lights. Finally they reached the house, marked by a red X spray painted on the side.

"Devil Actual, open the doors please." Leonardo said, panting from the run.

"Will do." The garage door creaked open, rolling upwards and folding over onto the ceiling.

The house and surrounding buildings were overgrown, and grass split open cracks in the garage floor. A man stood on that floor, black assault boots planted firmly on the ground. He wore a grey greatcoat reaching down to his ankles, and underneath a black sweater. On the right sleeve of the greatcoat he had sewn American army captains' bars in white. Around his neck hung dogtags. He was at least 40 years old, but looked about 50. He had short, grey hair, and persistent grey stubble. There was a scar across his right eye, which was white and blind.

"Good to see you all in one piece." Captain Louis said.

"You too." Sarah said smiling. They entered the garage and leaned on the walls, panting. "These guns are heavy you know."

"They're worth it." He answered bluntly. "Load it up we're leaving." They nodded, and slung the two backpacks into the back of the vehicle. It was an SUV, old, almost 20 years old but still running. The aliens still utilised petrol, not because it was better or more effective than their current energy sources, but simply because it was easier to use in some instances. Cars ran on it, and there was enough of it around to use for residential vehicles and military cars. This meant they had no trouble keeping their SUV running well. Dan and Leonardo got in the back, and Sarah drove. Louis was in the front seat. Leonardo began taking some of the rifles out and loading magazines into them. He handed each occupant a loaded rifle. Dan loaded shells into the empty magazines they'd stolen, and piled them back into one backpack. Leonardo slammed magazines into the remaining 2 rifles, flicked the safeties on and packed them up again. His sniper rifle was on the floor, and he clutched the magnetic assault rifle. Sarah turned the key and the engine sputtered into life, and they rolled forwards onto a barely noticeable road. Their lights were off. The klaxons had stopped now, but the dropships still flew overhead.

"I love my new sniper rifle guys. Just saying." Leonardo quipped.

"Yeah these assault rifles are pretty good too..." Dan said, smirking. "We can probably sell the other two at the black market for some other equipment." He saw Louis nod his head slightly. Silence for the next 30 minutes as Sarah navigated the pitch black road, dodging cars and other obstacles. Occasionally the road was simply blocked and they had to find an alternate rout. After another half hour of driving at a crawl, they'd finally escaped the suburbs and were in the wilderness. Forests had expanded dramatically since humans stopped cutting them down, along with wildlife. Cars littered the highways, broken and destroyed. They turned onto a well known trail through a forest and increased speed. For the next hour they drove through thin woodland, almost 10 miles. They reached a denser live of wood, and went up a long winding drive. They emerged from the trees into a clearing, where a large two story house stood defiantly, along with a small barn and garage. Home.


End file.
